Ahh, Influencers. A key component to your social media and inbound marketing success. Not only do we need them to propel our marketing efforts to the next level, but they also play a large part of your relationship marketing strategy. An Influencer campaign should be a part of your social media engagement strategy.

Many different types of online "influencers" exist, as outlined in this post by [url=/u/185416 x-already-notified=1]Stephanie Frasco[/url]. While this article was posted almost a year ago, the principles still stand true.

An interesting exercise could be to either (a) consider what type of influencer you are (I'm a social butterfly!) or (b) consider what types of influencers you should be targeting to help achieve your business goals through a social engagement strategy.

Here are some of my best tips on what your business goals can tell you about the types of influencers you should target:

Influencers to target: Social Butterflies. Chances are, they know people in almost any major city you'd want to host an event in, and are likely to have large networks of people who will show up. You can take it from there!

Goal: Launch a new technology

Influencers to target: Early Adopters. They spend all of their days on Kickstarter and TechCrunch trying to figure out what the next gadget, site, or invention is going to be and how soon they can get it. If you let them in on your next big idea, they're the ones who will be the most psyched about trying it out and sharing how great it is with the world.

Goal:Validate your value prop/need for your offering.

Influencers to target: Experts/Gurus. These are the ones who people turn to for advice on certain things. If you're trying to convince the market that your product is necessary for social media, then you're going to want a social media expert to agree with you.

Goal: Get popular.

Influencers to target: Celebrities. Everyone loves pop culture. It's human to admire celebrities, and they're the ones that become influencers without even trying. Think about the fanbases of people like Beiber and Lady GaGa. Whatever they say, their fans do. Like Stephanie points out, this could get pricey, but if you've got the money, will result in massive publicity.

Goal: Spend less time & money on word of mouth marketing and online content.

Influencers to target: Content Creators. These are the ones who are constantly writing, blogging, etc. They love spreading the word about things they like, and also make great guest bloggers (hello, #leancontent!)

Goal: Promote your content

Influencers to target: Broadcasters. If your content leads to business leads, you're going to want it to promote it as much as possible. Broadcasters might not always be the ones using your product/service or even maintaining relationships with your brand, but they are the ones who are sharing as much content as they possibly can, and usually have lots and lots of followers. (Sometimes, though, like Stephanie says, they over-share and get lost in the noise. Extra tweets can never hurt, though!)

Influencers to target: Your customers! Your customers might not be influencers yet, but they're the ones who will require the least amount of effort to connect with. Once you communicate with them enough, they'll become the next generation of brand ambassadors, and eventually, influencers of your own!

We believe that one of the most important challenges educators face today is to prepare kids for the world that awaits them after they leave the classroom -- those "21st century skills" you keep hearing about. We've created the free resources below to support and inspire you and your students in facing that challenge.

Also, be sure to visit the Collaborize Classroom Topic Library, where you'll find thousands of topics that have been created and successfully used by educators in their own Collaborize Classroom® sites.

One reason restaurateurs are hesitant to go with the social media flow is that there are so many different choices. It’s not easy to decide which platforms are right for advertising and marketing a restaurant.

This post will go into how you can leverage email marketing in your e-commerce business to gain new, lost or recurring clients. The post How to Leverage Email Marketing for Your Online Shop by @tdevalk appeared first on Search Engine Journal.

As you know, Google has announced that as of today, the algorithm will be expanding its use of mobile-friendliness as a ranking signal for mobile searches.

The majority of websites that will suffer from this update will be the ones that only feature a desktop-oriented design. Adapting the design to work for smartphones and tablets as well may be easy, requiring a few changes to style sheets, or may be difficult, requiring a complete redesign.

If you struggle with providing a steady stream of fresh, relevant content for your website, you’re not alone. Perhaps one of the best ways to overcome this challenge, while also increasing the value you provide to your audience, is through the process of editorialized content curation.

But while we know that this process (when done right) is beneficial in terms of driving traffic, extending reach and providing interesting and valuable content, what does Google think about content curation?

The question about how Google views content curation is one that's often debated - and often very passionately.

SEO and curation expert Jayson DeMers has a few solid facts to back up the argument that curation - when done right - can only help SEO.

Did you know that curated content, when combined with original content (like Scoop.it insight) ca rank just as well as original content alone? If not - or even if you did - read this post to find out more.

How many times per day should we post? Luckily, we’re able to check in a bunch of research on social media frequency to get a "best practice" baseline. The post How Often Should You Post on Social Media?

There’s a lot of effort that goes into running a blog professionally. And the larger part of a blogger’s time is spent in researching and organizing information – often more than it takes to create the content itself.

By following these amazingly simple steps, you can have your local business showing up in front of people within your city who are looking for your services (you don't even need to know anything about SEO get it started!

Sharing your scoops to your social media accounts is a must to distribute your curated content. Not only will it drive traffic and leads through your content, but it will help show your expertise with your followers.

Integrating your curated content to your website or blog will allow you to increase your website visitors’ engagement, boost SEO and acquire new visitors. By redirecting your social media traffic to your website, Scoop.it will also help you generate more qualified traffic and leads from your curation work.

Distributing your curated content through a newsletter is a great way to nurture and engage your email subscribers will developing your traffic and visibility.
Creating engaging newsletters with your curated content is really easy.